The most expensive coffee in the world – All details about Kopi Luwak All About Kopi Luwak – The Most Expensive Coffee In The World! Kopi luwak is the world’s most expensive coffee. The main factor of it’s high price is the uncommon method of producing such a coffee. It has been produced from the coffee beans which have been digested by a certain Indonesian cat-like animal called then palm civet or also civet cat . This is the reason kopi luwak is also called cat poop coffee or civet cat coffee. The feces of this cat will be collected, finished and sold as kopi luwak. On this website you will find all relevant information about the production process, the cat, certified kopi luwak producers, the kopi luwak coffee itself and it’s unique properties and taste. The short supply, in comparison with the high demand, the different taste and the uncommon production methods define the value of kopi luwak – the most expensive coffee in the world .

Here is a price comparison of a kopi luwak coffee with an average coffee brand: kopi luwak (coffee production per year) Why is Kopi Luwak so special and the most expensive coffee? The most important reason of the coffee’s speciality is the production process. Have a look at the pictures below to see how the most expensive coffee is produced: from beans fallen from a coffee tree to a cup of Kopi Luwak coffee. If you want more details about each step, just click on “more..” in each section. Hint: To enjoy Kopi Luwak, use regular sized coffee mugs . The coffee tree, Coffea, is a flowering evergreen plant native to tropical Africa and Asia. In the 17th century it was also imported to Latin-America. (more..) In fact, coffee beans are seeds and not beans. They contain caffeine as a plant defense against animals. However, this is no protection against the palm civet cat. (more..) During the digestion process the coffee cherries and the pulp are removed but the coffee beans are not digested. During this process some kind of unique fermentation occurs which is responsible for giving the civet coffee its special flavor.

(more..) Palm civets, also known as civet cats, are small mammals which belong to the Viverridae family. Normally they prefer to eat just the ripest coffee cherries. In Indonesia these animals are known as luwaks. (more..) After about 24 hours the coffee beans are defecated by the civet cat. In Southeast Asia these feces are considered golden. They are collected from farmers and processed into coffee. (more..) In the next steps the coffee beans are washed, dried, pounded to remove the skin, sorted and finally roasted . (more..) Kopi Luwak coffee can be brewed like any other coffee. Avoid using sugar, milk or cream in your kopi luwak, because with these ingredients you will not be able to taste its unique flavor. (more..) enjoy the cup! Important: You should pay attention when buying Kopi Luwak coffee! The keyword in this sense is animal friendly and “ authentic “, which means it’s coffee cherries have been eaten, digested and excreted by wild living and non-caged civet cat, collected by farmers and sold to roasters to prepare for human consumption.

The potential in selling of kopi Luwak is high, which allures alot business people trying to skim the market with wicked methods: 1.) “Fake” kopi luwak / Civet coffee A book about all the problems of fake kopi luwak Around 70% of kopi luwak coffee or civet coffee available at coffee stores and the Internet is NOT 100% pure kopi luwak and sometimes it does not contain anything of the genuine coffee. Mark Prince of the popular industry forum Coffee Geek has stated, “There is probably 5,000 percent more kopi luwak sold each year than there is actually produced; production of the legit stuff runs less than 5,000 pounds per year. Why? Because there’s lots of snake oil salesmen packaging up plain Jane inferior commodity grade Indonesian coffees under this banner and trying to get $300 per pound for it.” If you need a detail explanation of the fake potential of kopi luwak, we recommend reading “Don’t Buy kopi luwak Coffee Before You Read This Book” , which gives some great advices.

The “Fake” seller try to sell the “most expensive coffee” for a high price with low producing costs. 2.) “Cruel” kopi luwak farms / caged civet cats Natural kopi luwak, which is harmless to the animals, is found on plantation grounds and collected for roasting. Unfortunately, the farmers of this expensive bean found too high a demand for the coffee and started to harvest the beans unnaturally. Farmers stopped worrying about the natural cultivation of the product and rather looked for ways to yield the highest profit. The answer? Farmers gathered and caged an over-abundant amount of civets and started to almost exclusively feed them coffee beans. High-end pricing turned farming civet cats for kopi luwak coffee into a enslavement industry. Hundreds of the animals can be caged together where they fight or gnaw at their own limbs due to mental distress. Many farmers are uneducated on how to care for their animals and stand by as many succumb to illness and death.

The differences between kopi luwak from farmed and wild civet cats: FARMED CIVET CATS Most Expensive Coffee in the World Most Expensive Coffee in the World by tom 163 Comments The most expensive coffee in the world does not hail from Jamaica or Hawaii, but instead from Indonesia. Kopi Luwak the most expensive coffee in the world does exist, and those who drink the expensive coffee insist that it is made from coffee beans eaten, partly digested and then excreted by the Common palm civet, a weasel-like animal. “Kopi” the Indonesian word for coffee along with “luwak” is local name of this animal which eats the raw red coffee beans. The civet digests the soft outer part of the coffee cherry, but does not digest the inner beans and excretes them. Apparently the internal digestion ends up adds a unique flavor to the beans, removing the bitter flavor, and then beans are then picked up by locals and sold. The most expensive coffee beans can cost up to $600 a pound, and up to $50 per cup, if you can get over the fact that you are drinking such a strange brew.

You would know if you drank the most expensive coffee in the world, because the quantities of it are tiny amounts. The most expensive coffee in the world is made from animal poop - Boing Boing The most expensive coffee in the world is made from animal poop By Lisa Katayama at 2:02 pm Fri, May 22, 2009 SHARE TWEET STUMBLE COMMENTS Meet the Asian Palm Civet. Also known as a Toddy Cat, he is a feline-sized mammal native to Southeast Asia. Civets like to eat red coffee berries and beans. In the jungles in which they live, they find the sweetest, ripest ones and munch on them with their cute little faces. But they can't digest them, so the berries and beans come out as poop. One day, humans discovered that the enzymes in the civets' tummies break down the coffee's bitterness, leaving behind an extremely delicious pooped bean. They took the poop home, washed it lightly, roasted it, ground it, poured boiled water over it, and drank it. Tastes like caramel and chocolate! Thus spawned a small industry of poop-coffee-making.

Today, Kopi Luwak--civet coffee in Indonesian--sells for about $30 a cup in select coffee shops in Japan and the US. I have yet to try a cup, but if you've ever drank it I'd love to know whether you thought it was worth the extra bucks. 27 responses to “The most expensive coffee in the world is made from animal poop” Anonymous May 22, 2009 at 2:42 pm I tried a few cups of this when a coffee geek friend of mine got a half pound for his birthday. It was tasty coffee, but nothing special really. Though I question how fresh the coffee was — expensive, extremely perishable and “manufactured” far from where it is consumed. That’s a bad combination. Hmm. Sounds like some enterprising scientist needs to characterize the digestive enzymes of the Civet, splice the relevant genes into e. coli, and start producing these in industrial scale fermentation tanks… The purists will cry; but such is progress. May 22, 2009 at 3:13 pm I recently tried a cup with a couple of friends of mine.

It was a neat experience, but not one that I need to recreate soon. Though the bitterness was gone, I also felt some of the richness was gone too. The coffee was just a bit too smooth for my taste. I do highly recommend that every “coffee snob” try some if they get the chance, but it’s not going to become an obsession for many of them. If you live in the Bay Area, you can try a cup from Bean Street in San Mateo. I believe it’s $30 a cup. Here are some pics from our experience there I recall this being a side story in a not so long ago movie .. and I just can;t think of the name .. anyone? 30$ for a cup of coffee … hmmm i try it on a coffÃ¨ in Lecco (Italy) for only 3â‚¬ 🙂 it’s less bitter than a normal espresso but the taste is very persistent. May 22, 2009 at 7:06 pm Okay, so severe coffee nerd rant to follow, skip if you like.

Coffee is processed typically via one of two processes, typically called the “wet” or “washed” process or the “dry” or “natural” process. As you can imagine, one involves water, and one doesn’t, but the point is that any major grade beanhead will be able to go on for hours about how this drastically affects the flavor of the coffee. (The roaster I work for recently switched our supply of Ethiopian Sidamo beans from washed to natural and the difference is astounding). Both, however, are perfectly valid ways to process coffee, until we get to the Indonesian “semi-dry” process. The Indonesians typically remove the fruit of the coffee mechanically, and then leave the beans out on large patios to dry and remove the mucilage. Cuppers will often refer to Indonesian beans as being “earthy”, due to the fact that the beans literally have dirt in them from sitting on these sun drying patios for sometimes months at a time. Indonesian farmers typically don’t have access to a lot of running water, so this is mostly a practical move rather than a conscious one to improve taste. Now here’s where the critters come in.

The average animal digestive system does almost exactly what the wet/washed coffee process does. The civets wash the flesh off the ripened cherry and strain off the mucilage, except they do it with their saliva/mouths and stomach acids rather than with washing basins and sieves. Sure, there may be something specific about their digestive enzymes that do something unique, but I sincerely doubt it’s much more than the difference in process would do. Indonesians naturally cup with lots of chocolate notes with not a lot of acidity or tartness, it’s just that this is typically sublimated by the aforementioned earthiness that comes with the territory. I once had the pleasure of sampling some “bird processed” Peruvian coffee (same deal as the Kopi Luwak except with Peruvian birds rather than Indonesian civets), and while it was mighty tasty, it wasn’t that terribly much different from a high grade washed Peruvian. Further, the majority of the coffee that the civets get to is Robusta coffee (better known to you and I as “gas station coffee”) the lower grade, cheaper to grow cousin of the specialty Arabica beans.

So while the civets might pick the cream of the crop to eat and poop out, it’s the best of the worst. Kopi Luwak beans are effectively the valedictorians of summer school. tldr: If the Indonesian coffee farmers had access to running water, all of their coffees would taste a lot like Kopi Luwak. May 23, 2009 at 3:10 am I’ve had it a few times now in different shops, and enjoyed it. I’d describe it the taste as a cross between an aged Sumatra and a dark-roasted Moka. The beans have a slightly disturbing musky smell, but I can’t detect it in the brewed coffee. I’d say it’s certainly worth trying for the experience, but (like Blue Mountain) it’s not so transcendently superior as to justify the price for regular drinking. As for what the luwak is actually contributing, it’s worth remembering that the same animal has anal musk glands that provide the base for perfumes.

Somehow this is rarely mentioned in the promotional literature; for some reason they prefer to focus on the idea that the luwak is choosing the choicest, ripest cherries … I also find it amusing that this is perhaps the most vegan-friendly animal-produced food ever. You let the animal roam free, eating its favorite food, and you pick up its droppings. Who could object? (Though I confess I live in fear that someone will tell me the luwaks are actually kept in tiny cages and force-fed a slurry of rotten cherries and laxatives …) And finally, I should note that here in Singapore, kopi luwak apparently has an ambiguous legal status. As I was hunting for sources, a Vietnamese coffee importer told me that they sometimes have problems clearing it through customs, so instead they have invented … wait for it … SYNTHETIC CIVET-SHIT COFFEE, using vegetable enzymes to achieve a similar effect: May 23, 2009 at 10:42 am I tried this a few years ago at Legare’s in Portland, OR. Four of us shared a press pot, which gave us each about 6oz.

Normally I use cream in coffee, but felt guilty about spending $10 just to mix it 50/50 with cream, so I tried it black. It was actually quite smooth. If you try it, make sure you’re not paying big bucks for mechanically created “poopy coffee” (see #15). For coffee fiends, it’s worth trying once…I recommend doing it the way I did, where you get a taste without forking out all that cash. May 25, 2009 at 9:34 am Yup, this is ancient news, and has been on Boing before. Also, the concept of civets roaming free and people finding their poop is nice but outdated. As soon as this stuff became popular, locals started capturing the civets and force-feeding them berries to create larger volumes of the beans. Since the civets get barely any nutritional value from the beans, they’re eventually being starved to death while being stuffed. This will also result in a lower-quality coffee since they aren’t picking their own ripe berries. There are also “free-range” civet farms, where they’re enclosed in a large area and allowed to roam and eat as they choose.

As for creating an artificial process for this, there’s at least one scientist currently working on a method using a big ol’ vat of enzymes. Now if only I could find that article on it… Under The Angsana Tree: Kopi Luwak: World's Most Expensive Coffee Kopi Luwak: World's Most Expensive Coffee Civet cat coffee's animal cruelty secrets The BBC secretly filmed civet cats being held in battery-style conditions Kopi luwak is made from coffee beans excreted by Indonesian palm civets - small, mongoose-like creatures. Coffee firms say wild civet cats eat the ripest beans which gain a desirable flavour But undercover reporters in Indonesia witnessed civets held in battery-cage conditions to produce the coffee. Animal cruelty during the production of one of the world's priciest coffees has been exposed by a BBC investigation. And experts say they are "totally convinced" kopi luwak from caged animals ends up on the London market.

read more WSPA International: the Cruelty behind the World's Most Expensive Coffee "Behind the world's most expensive coffee are huge animal welfare issues", says the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA ( and consumers, retailers and governments need to help end the cruel practices behind civet coffee production. A BBC report on this issue, launched today, features WSPA wildlife experts highlighting animal welfare concerns related to civet coffee, and now has retailers questioning whether or not they should continue to sell this luxury product Selling for up to $100 USD per cup, civet coffee, or ' Kopi Luwak ' as it is known in Indonesia is made from coffee beans that the small cat-like mammal, known as a civet partially digests and excretes. The digestive process is believed to ferment the beans and produce a coveted smooth taste according to coffee aficionados.

Whilst some beans are still sourced harmlessly and traditionally by local people gathering civet droppings in the wild--a method believed to produce the most superior tasting civet coffee--disturbing evidence presented to WSPA by the BBC shows that civets are increasingly caged in cruel and inadequate conditions in South East Asia to increase the yield of beans for this rare and highly coveted drink. read more Cutting the Crap on the World's Most Expensive Coffee A 24 carat gold foil bag of kopi luwak coffee is available for £6,500 at Harrods, the luxury department store in Central London. But if you can only stretch to just a cup, then a speciality coffee shop in West Village, New York City will relieve you of $30 for a shot, while there's a place in Rupert Street, London, W1, which will serve a cup (or should that be chalice?) for £60. Meanwhile the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Singapore lets it go for 80 Singapore dollars a hit (£40). This was the ultimate bling coffee for over twenty years, and a furtive, cherished secret amongst coffee aficionados.

But the cat was finally let out of the bag when kopi luak starred in a crucial scene of the Hollywood blockbuster movie The Bucket List, as the coffee of choice for Jack Nicholson's exacting billionaire. Impoverished Morgan Freeman triumphantly breaks the news to an incredulous Nicholson, that the coffee acquires it's unique flavour, because it's found in animal pooh. For film fans who may have been nonplussed, if this part of the otherwise fictional movie was indeed true, we can confirm that genuine Indonesian kopi luwak is collected from the droppings of a wild cat-like animal called the luwak (otherwise known as common palm civet, Paraxorus Hermaphroditus). A shy, solitary nocturnal forest animal that freely prowls nearby coffee plantations at night in the harvest season, eating the choicest ripe coffee cherries. read more Indonesian cat-poo coffee producers deny mislabelling In this file photograph taken on July 21, 2010, a wild civet in a cage is fed ripe arabika coffee fruits at a coffee plantation producing expensive luwak coffee on Bali island.

Indonesian producers of luwak coffee made from beans excreted by civet cats denied on September 13, 2013 that the industry has been misleading consumers after the BBC reported the animals being kept in battery-like farms. AFP PHOTO / FILES / SONNY TUMBELAKA Indonesian producers of gourmet coffee made from beans excreted by civet cats denied Friday they were routinely misleading consumers after a report said coffee from caged animals had been labelled “wild”. The Indonesian Kopi Luwak Association also defended the practice of keeping the weasel-like creatures in cages to make the coffee, saying it was fine as long as the end product was clearly labelled. “ Kopi Luwak ” has found its way to cafes around the world in recent years, and is one of the world’s most expensive coffees. The Asian palm civets sniff out and eat top-quality coffee berries and then defecate the fruit, giving it a rich creamy flavour. Animal dung coffee at £50 a cup The blend is made from two rare coffee beans A gourmet coffee blended from animal droppings is being sold at a London department store for £50 per cup.

Jamaican Blue Mountain and the Kopi Luwak bean are used to create Caffe Raro which is thought to be the most expensive cup of coffee in the world. Kopi Luwak beans are eaten, then passed, by the cat-like Asian palm civet, and sell for £324 a kilogram. All profits from sales of the coffee at Peter Jones in Sloane Square in April will go to Macmillan Cancer Support read more Civet Cat Coffee's Animal Cruelty Secrets Coffee firms say wild civet cats eat the ripest beans which gain a desirable flavour - but as Chris Rogers reports, many are kept in captivity Animal cruelty during the production of one of the world's priciest coffees has been exposed by a BBC investigation. Kopi luwak is made from coffee beans excreted by Indonesian palm civets - small, mongoose-like creatures. But undercover reporters in Indonesia witnessed civets held in battery-cage conditions to produce the coffee read more Coffee in Vietnam - It's the shit In a humid outdoor café surrounded by palm trees, Hung Pham Ngoc launches an attack on his coffee, pushing aside a cup of pungent black java for a Coke.

“Everything is fake!” complains the professional coffee taster and self-proclaimed snob. “It's all made from artificial flavours. It's undrinkable.” He fumes on about the problems of the coffee industry, and what he calls a grievous oversupply of substandard beans. Vietnam is the world's second-largest coffee producer, but also one of the most obscure. Unlike coffee exports from countries such as Brazil and Ethiopia, Vietnamese beans are typically used in cheap instant Western coffee, which earns scant international commendation. His country, he declares, needs to market a trendy style of coffee drinking—like Starbucks, he adds, but finer. “Civet dung,” he proclaims. “Civet dung makes coffee good. It's natural, and it makes real coffee.” Mr Hung is one of a handful of Vietnamese aficionados trying to revive tastes for this epicurean and elusive beverage. At specialised coffeeshops around the world, this coffee sells for around $30 a cup. As it happens, civet cats are coffee connoisseurs. With their long noses, they sniff out and eat the best and fleshiest beans. Their digestive enzymes ferment the beans and break down the proteins.

These beans, harvested from the faeces, then create a coffee that tastes rich and slightly smoky with hints of chocolate. The beverage is known in Vietnamese as ca phe chon, or civet-cat coffee, and is also commonly produced in Indonesia and the Philippines. The final cup delivers a smooth, dark palate that is stronger but, some say, less bitter than typical coffee. The Philippines' taste for civet coffee Beans for a unique cup of coffee Civets are seen as pests in the Philippines Finding and preparing the beans is labour-intensive work Mr Gross said the coffee had 'some substance' The Philippines has recently discovered it produces one of the world's most expensive and coveted kinds of coffee. But it comes from an unusual source - the droppings of a nocturnal, cat-like animal called the palm civet. Civets, related to the mongoose, are usually seen as pests in the Philippines and hunted for their meat. But their droppings are worth their weight in gold. read more Kopi Luwak - Not just an urban legend Kopi Luwak coffee comes from the Indonesian island of Sumatra, an area well-known for its excellent coffee.

Also native to the area is a small civit-like animal called a Paradoxurus. That's the scientific name, the locals call them luwaks. These little mammals live in the trees and one of their favorite foods is the red, ripe coffee cherry. They eat the cherries, bean and all. While the bean is in the little guy's stomach, it undergoes chemical treatments and fermentations. The bean finishes its journey through the digestive system, and exits. The still-intact beans are collected from the forest floor, and are cleaned, then roasted and ground just like any other coffee. The resulting coffee is said to be like no other. It has a rich, heavy flavour with hints of caramel or chocolate. Other terms used to describe it are earthy, musty and exotic. The body is almost syrupy and it's very smooth. One must wonder about the circumstances that brought about the first cup of Kopi Luwak coffee. Who would think to (or even want to) collect and roast beans out of animal feces? Perhaps a native figured it was easier to collect the beans from the ground this way, rather than having to work harder and pick them from the trees? We'll likely never know.

But because of the strange method of collecting, there isn't much Kopi Luwak produced in the world. The average total annual production is only around 500 pounds of beans. read more MEET THE LUWAK Luwak is the Indonesian name for the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus), one of several species of small mammals native to Africa and south east Asia. Musang is another generic Malay name for any cat or fox like animal and doesn't specifically refer to the luwak. Civets have a long association with humans and the African civet was historically used as a major source of musk, the base fixative of many well known perfumes and one of the most expensive animal products known. Luwaks are found throughout tropical south east Asia including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, India and Vietnam where they inhabit tropical rain forest and, unavoidably, fruit and coffee plantations. They are strongly arboreal preferring to spend most of their time in trees, and omnivorous meaning they will eat almost anything available. In nature their diet consists of eggs, insects, other small animals and whatever fruit is in season.

When coffee plantations flower, and then consequently produce fruit, the bright red cherries form a major part of their diet resulting in deposits of kopi luwak in the plantations and surrounding jungle. read more Quality Of Wild Indonesian Civet Coffee For coffee lovers in Indonesia actually isn't foreign to hear civet coffee (Indonesian is kopi luwak) or low that comes from the stomach or through the digestive fermentation of a civet, the foremost expensive low in the globe in step For coffee lovers in Indonesia actually isn't foreign to hear civet coffee (Indonesian is Kopi Luwak) or low that comes from the stomach or through the digestive fermentation of a civet, the foremost expensive low in the globe in step with wikipedia is additionally smart for health additionally to the fragrant aroma of low when brewed. Additionally to being the foremost expensive low, coffee sorts are also a lot of the audience as a result of of the style, aroma and health benefits. For those who have problems with the stomach, currently you'll be able to relish the taste of low with the presence of civet low is safe while not interfering with the performance of 2 sorts of gastric you.

There Luwak low is created in Indonesia is the results of wild civet and from mongoose l breeding results. Wild Civet Occasional (Indonesian: Kopi Luwak Liar) comes from animal feces mongoose that deliberately sought and located within the woods or around the occasional plantations freely. There's a belief, wild civet coffee quality is comparatively higher compared with captive civet low, because the process of choice of the coffee fruit is consumed by the animal mongoose occur naturally and not forced. However there is an excess of civet low captive than wild civet, mongoose though pets don't seem to be selecting and eating cherries straight from the tree, however certainly given the captive civet occasional berries are ripe and recent. Animals are still sorting themselves mongoose cherries are ripe optimal primarily based on a keen sense of smell and a unique digestive system and then fermented completely. read more What is Cat Coffee? Also known as kopi luwak, cat coffee is a type of coffee made from coffee beans excreted by a small Indonesian mammal. Sometimes called "cat poop coffee", this rare type of coffee IS made from poop, but NOT made from cat poop.

It's actually made from the poop of a civet-like animal called a Paradoxurus or (locally) a luwak. (Kopi is the local word for "coffee", so kopi luwak literally means Paradoxurus coffee.) Like the Rhesus monkeys that give monkey coffee its unique flavor, the luwaks on the Indonesian island of Sumatra seek out the sweetest and ripest of coffee cherries. They then chew them and (unlike the Rhesus monkeys) ingest them. After they digest the coffee cherries, they "poop out" the seed of the coffee cherry, which we commonly call the "coffee bean". The excreted coffee beans are carefully collected and rinsed, then processed much like ordinary coffee beans. If you can get past the gross-out factor of this rare and unusual coffee, you are likely to be in for a culinary treat. The digestive process of the luwak removes much of the acid from the coffee beans and creates unique enzymatic changes in the beans, resulting in a particularly rich, smooth, complex, sweet cup of coffee.

Coffee connoisseurs are known to pay $300 US or more for a single pound of cat coffee, and to say it's well worth the price! read more What is Monkey Coffee? Monkey coffee is a rare type of coffee made from beans that were chewed by Rhesus monkeys . The monkeys are instinctively drawn to the ripest, sweetest coffee cherries growing on coffee estates. They select the best coffee cherries, pick them, chew them leisurely for a few minutes and then spit the remainder of the fruit (the seed we known as the "coffee bean" and the "parchment" layer surrounding the seed) onto the ground. After the monkeys spit out the coffee beans, workers painstakingly harvest the chewed seeds. The seeds are then rinsed, washed, processed and dried. The dry beans look gray (rather than the usual green color of raw beans) and sometimes have tooth marks from the Rhesus monkeys. After drying, the coffee beans can be roasted and then sold like other commercially available coffee beans. You can prepare monkey parchment coffee at home just as you would any other coffee beans. However, like cat poop coffee, monkey parchment coffee tastes very different from typical coffee.

This is because the monkeys' saliva causes enzymes in the beans to break down, thus changing the overall flavor profile of the coffee. Kopi Luwak (or civet coffee) The price per cup ensured we just ordered one Kopi Luwak (or civet coffee) is something I was unaware of until arriving in Singapore. I like coffee but I guess I'm not really a connoisseur of all things coffee related. Upon hearing about it though and subsequently discovering that the production of the coffee is fairly unique my curiosity was peaked to see if perhaps I could find an opportunity to try it at some point. Just in case you do not know kopi luwak is made from coffee beans that have been eaten and partially digested by the Asian Palm Civet. These civet's are cat like animals native to South and South East Asia, they can even be found in Singapore. They are omnivores eating a variety of berries (and the coffee beans) as well as small mammals and insects. Back to the coffee though and as I mentioned the civets eat the coffee beans which is the start of the kopi luwak production process.

Whilst in the civet's stomach various enzymes seep into the beans and chemical changes occur to the partially digested bean. After they are passed by the civet the beans are collected from the animal's faeces and once gathered are thoroughly washed, sun dried then lightly roasted and brewed to make what is currently one of the most expensive coffees in the world (hence my husband and I deciding to share a cup). I Had Kopi Luwak, the Most Expensive Coffee in the World It all began like this… “Wanna drink sh*t?” my friend D asked excitedly. “What??” I demanded, unsure whether it’s a genuine question or insult. “You wanna drink sh*t or not?” he persisted, like that’s the most natural thing in the world. “Come, come, I show you.” Intrigued, and a little disgusted, I followed him to where another friend K sat. K had just returned from the depths of the Indonesian jungle. He brought back with him a small bottle of brown substance. The Most Expensive Coffee in the World | Serious Eats The Most Expensive Coffee in the World 2 I generally don’t like to eat anything that came out the ass of a Civet .

Or from the digestive system of any other living thing for that matter. Which is odd, because I have no problem eating the digestive system itself: I’m a connoisseur of natural casing sausage, kidneys, and liver. Still I’ve made this distinction and I’m sticking to it for now. As such, I haven’t had a chance to taste Kopi Luwak , one of the most expensive coffees in the world. Kopi Luwak, as you can probably guess from my opener, comes from coffee berries which have passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet . The animal’s digestive system works as sort of a defacto depulping mechanism, yielding partially-digested beans coated with various internal essences and enzymes. The beans are harvested, cleaned, lightly roasted and sold. Still, perceived luxury is a deadly siren. As a child of the MTV generation, I’ve grown up with rappers and rock stars rocking Coach and Cartier, inundating me with Cristal and caviar. As a generally label unconscious straight white boy, you’d think I’d see through the crap (in the case of the coffee, literally).

But, a few years ago I found myself totally obsessed with Louis Vuitton’s Takashi Murakami line of cherry blossom handbags. Of course, sense prevailed, as I have no use for a purse. A man purse maybe, but I didn’t have $90,000 or whatever a custom Vuitton messenger bag would have cost. Point is, sometimes, you eventually find yourself reasoning: maybe I should be drinking butt coffee? But just in time, a couple of weeks ago, Intelligentsia , a Chicago micro-roaster offered up Geisha, one of the world’s most expensive coffees that doesn’t come from the gut of a furry creature. Geisha is grown in Boquete, Panama at the plantation Hacienda La Esmeralda . Its origin is Ethiopian, but the variatel moved via missionaries and foreign consuls through Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Costa Rica prior to landing in Panama. The Geisha varietal is low yielding and tend to mirror typica plants in height (along with the bourbon, typica represents most of the widely available coffees we drink).

They thrive at altitudes of 1,400-1,500 km, and the leaf cover on Geisha is sparse. The branches of the plant grow at an extreme vertical angle to facilitate nutrient flow. Since the plant needs more coddling than a diva like J-Lo, it was unattractive to commercial growers seeking to sell Aluminum can sealed pap by the ton. And as Geoff Watts, Vice President of Chicago’s Intelligentsia coffee puts it, “The reason there’s so much bad coffee in the world is that the world has never been willing to pay for great coffee.” The owners of Hacienda Esmeralda thought differently. Instead of automating everything, preying on poor workers by paying less than a living wage, and muddling all of their harvest in bad equipment, the Peterson family took a cue from Apple and decided to “Think Different”. At Esmeralda, the berries are hand picked and then picked over to remove any unripe beans. The beans are then run through state of the art depulping machines. In the case of the Geisha, there’s a papaya perfume that wafts during depulping which carries over into the finished cup.

Once depulped, the beans are dried on patios and occasionally in mechanical dryers. This “wet” drying process is where most of the flavor of a bean is lost, and the beans at Esmeralda are carefully monitored to ensure that the temperature of the bean never exceeds a point where volatile and essential oils can escape. The Geisha discovery was a case of serendipity. Even though the family owned the farm since 1964, they didn’t start growing coffee seriously until 1987. By 1996, they bought a couple of nearby farms, including Esmeralda Jaramillo aka Pequenia Suecia (“Little Sweden” to commemorate the family’s ethnic heritage) where Daniel Peterson, the grandson of the plantation’s founder, found the geisha trees growing. After the first harvest, Peterson separated out each of the different Geisha harvests into different lots (last years harvest included 27 different lots) and cupped the individual beans, and identified a distinct citrus infused lot that was unlike anything previously tasted in Panama. The beans were so different, he worried about entering them in competition for fear that people would perceive the difference as a production failure.

He entered the beans anyway, and since 2004, they’ve won every head to head competition in which they’ve been entered. Peterson says, now that the secrets out, he’s heard of people roaming African jungles searching for indigenous Geisha plants. Watts, says that a number of farms in Panama are now attempting to grow Geisha to capitalize on the economic boon, not unlike the explosion of Blue Agave farming in the last decade. Peterson’s craft and attention to detail melded with the values of Chicago’s Intelligentsia coffee who led a consortium of micro-roasters to buy last year’s top harvest of Geisha for $130 a pound at auction. My own personal taste of the coffee at the Intelligentsia roasting works was pretty profound. Smooth with lemon and honey notes, the coffee channeled the perfect cup of tea. With no stomach churning acidity or even hints of bitterness or chocolate you might typically associate with coffee, it’s a paradigm shifting cup. Since it’s not the very definition of coffee, you may not feel it’s the best cup you’ve ever had.

But to use a wine analogy, if you’re one of those folks who likes oaky chardonnays or big dusty Bordeauxs, but also get blown away when you come across an outlying Sauvignon Blanc which bursts with grapefruit or tropical notes, then this is most definitely a coffee for you. Purists on the other hand, need not apply. Though I suppose the folks at Intelligentsia are purists and they loved it so much, they paid a ransom for it. The coffee is available online at intelligentsiacoffee.com , and the beans retail for $55 a quarter pound and $99 a half pound. It’s a small price to pay for greatness, and best of all you don’t need to sort through dung to drink a cup. About the author: Michael Nagrant writes for Serious Eats from Chicago, where he also publishes Hungry magazine. Michael never met an organ meat he didn't like. He hopes to meet many more.

Peruvian coffee growers harvest dung for golden profits | Reuters Mon Dec 3, 2012 | 2:45 PM EST Peruvian coffee growers harvest dung for golden profits 1/5 Farmer Jose Durand shows his coffee to a visitor at the 'Expo Cafe Peru' coffee fair in Lima, October 19, 2012. Reuters/Lucero Del Castillo + 2/5 Farmer Jose Durand poses with his coffee at the 'Expo Cafe Peru' coffee fair in Lima October 19, 2012. Reuters/Lucero Del Castillo + 3/5 Farmer Jose Durand explains the making of his coffee to visitors at the 'Expo Cafe Peru' coffee fair in Lima, October 19, 2012. Reuters/Lucero Del Castillo + 4/5 A coati is shown by an assistant of farmer Jose Durand at the 'Expo Cafe Peru' coffee fair in Lima, October 19, 2012.

Durand is now making one of the most expensive coffees in the world by picking arabica beans out of the dung of a long-nosed jungle critter called the coati, a tropical cousin of the racoon. His company, Chanchamayo Highland Coffee, is the second Peruvian venture to copy a rare technique from Indonesia that harnesses a mammal's digestive tract to strip bitter-tasting proteins from coffee beans. After the creatures eat ripe coffee cherries, the growers wash, roast and export the beans that emerge partially fermented but whole in the animals' scat. Picture taken October 19, 2012. Reuters/Lucero Del Castillo + 5/5 Coffee packages made by farmer Jose Durand are seen at the 'Expo Cafe Peru' coffee fair in Lima, October 19, 2012. Reuters/Lucero Del Castillo + By Mitra Taj | LIMA LIMA Jose Jorge Durand never thought he would end up harvesting dung for a living when war forced him from his home. Thirty years ago he fled to safety high in Peru's Andes mountains as a bloody leftist insurgency took root in the jungle where his family grew coffee.

Having since returned home, Durand is now making one of the most expensive coffees in the world by picking arabica beans out of the dung of a long-nosed jungle critter called the coati, a tropical cousin of the raccoon. His company, Chanchamayo Highland Coffee, is the second Peruvian venture to copy a rare technique from Indonesia that harnesses a mammal's digestive tract to strip bitter-tasting proteins from coffee beans. After the creatures eat ripe coffee cherries, the growers wash, roast and export the beans that emerge partially fermented, but whole, in the animals' scat. In doing so, the Peruvians are catering to the whims of global coffee consumers willing to pay anywhere from $20 to $65 for a cup of the odd treat, a sign coffee farmers here have come a long way toward tapping niche markets since the days when political violence and unscrupulous buyers stunted their reach. Peru, one of the world's top ten growers, lags far behind its neighbor Brazil in overall sales, but the Andean nation is the world's biggest producer and exporter of organic coffee.

Specialty coffees, from kosher brands to those produced by women's cooperatives, make up between 25 and 30 percent of Peru's exports, according to the Peruvian chamber of coffee and cacao. Online prices for dung-processed coffee offered on Amazon.com, mostly from southeast Asia, range from $40 to $1,160 per pound ($18 to $526 per kilo). "This is the most expensive crap in the world!" Durand shouted at a recent coffee fair in Lima, delivering a well-worn punchline to his pitch for coati-dung coffee. While stands around him tried to lure wholesale buyers with chocolate or women in revealing jungle-themed outfits, Durand drew small crowds by detailing the scatological habits of Lucas, the coati climbing up and down his arm. "This guy eats a lot of fruit so you might taste notes of papaya or Amazonian berries in your coffee," he said. Durand said 60 coati helped him produce the 990 pounds of dung coffee he is exporting to the United States for the first time this year at $36 per pound ($16 per kilo).

But he said the final vendor sells it for more than $270 per pound ($122 per kilo). "With this financial crisis, the rich have become richer and don't know how to spend their money, so this is one option." The Cecovasa collective in southern Peru has already been exporting coati-dung coffee for four years. Cecovasa's Marketing Manager Miguel Paz said he first heard about the process at a conference in Geneva in 2008. When he came back to Peru he brought it up at the group's next board meeting. "I always like to make jokes to lighten the mood so I said 'the Indonesians sell animal excrement as the most expensive coffee in the world!' and I showed them pictures," he said. "Then one producer said 'hey, I can do that, too.'" Last year Cecovasa shipped 220 pounds to Japan and England - their smallest export but the most profitable at about $66 per pound ($30 per kilo).

SCATTERED REVIEWS At the Arabica coffee shop in an upscale district in Lima, barista and coffee taster Roberto Caldas declared Durand's coati-dung coffee "very nice" - less bitter and more full-bodied than most coffees, and with an unusually long aftertaste. But he said he suspects it was roasted with light brown sugar, a no-no for purists. "It tastes really sweet" he said. It is unclear how Indonesians developed the original dung coffee - Kopi Luwak - into a global delicacy that has inspired versions in Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and now Peru. One story says Dutch colonialists forbade Indonesian natives from picking the crop to make their own coffee and so the locals turned to the droppings of the Asian palm civet - a plantation pest known for plundering coffee cherries. Research has shown the civet's digestive enzymes biochemically alter the coffee beans to make them less bitter.

The Peruvian coati are similar but unrelated to the civet, and are often adopted as pets or hunted for their meat by locals, who call them 'uchunari' or 'mishasho.' Paz said his coati are certified free-range, and Durand said his team roam the jungle most of the time, and are corralled to eat and leave their droppings. K.C. O'Keefe, a Lima-based coffee consultant, said he thinks the coffee-producing coati and civets are not treated humanely. And he says no animal-dung coffee, including Kopi Luwak, has ever won a taste award from coffee-tasting associations. "I think it's great producers here are becoming more aware of global marketing," he said. "But just because wealthy foreigners will pay good money for a laugh after dinner doesn't make it a specialty coffee from a sensorial perspective." The Cecovasa collective has won a number of awards for its organic Tunki coffee, including the 2010 "Coffee of the Year Award" by the Specialty Coffee Association of America - but so far it has not earned any accolades for its coati-dung "uchunari" coffee.

Durand, whose business represents some 1700 farmers, said to him coati-dung coffee tastes like success. As a boy his family used to earn a pittance in the Chanchamayo region selling coffee to middlemen who routinely ripped them off. "They'd manage to steal up to 25 kilos (55 pounds) from us for every bag" of 46 kilos, he said. "But my sister and I loved to go to town to sell our beans because they'd give us a soda and chips." Then in the 1980s an armed rebellion began to thrive in the same shady jungle slopes ideal for growing coffee. Durand said Shining Path guerrillas kidnapped, killed and recruited locals in a conflict that eventually claimed 69,000 lives over two decades. "Our area was really torn apart by the conflict," he said. "My parents sent me to live with relatives ... when I went back my friends were moving to the U.S. to work in construction." Like many of Peru's coffee growers today, Durand said he joined forces with other farmers to sell directly to exporters.

He said he hopes the jobs created by coati-dung and specialty coffees can help end what remains of the insurgency. The rebel group collapsed in the 1990s when its leaders were captured, but remnants of the Shining Path now control drug trafficking in remote jungles and regularly ambush the army. The government has been promoting specialty coffees as an alternative to planting coca, the raw ingredient for cocaine. "But if we make too much coati-dung coffee," he said, "it might not be the most expensive stuff in the world anymore." (Reporting By Mitra Taj; Editing by Terry Wade and Jackie Frank) ADVERTISEMENT Elephant Dung Coffee And Other Disgusting Culinary Delicacies - ALLDAY Elephant Dung Coffee And Other Disgusting Culinary Delicacies By KC Morgan Photo: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images News/Getty Images Would you drink coffee made from animal dung? Eat an entire bird, beak and all? Some of the most expensive, exotic foods in the world are also the most disgusting-sounding creations ever imagined. Elephant Dung Coffee Paula Bronstein/Getty Images News/Getty Images It’s actually called Black Ivory , but this coffee is best-known by its main ingredient: elephant dung.

Talk about a smell that gets you out of bed in the morning. All joking aside, this coffee is real and it’s the most expensive cup of java you can drink. In the jungle of the Golden Triangle, in Thailand, hard-working hands are picking through dung at the elephant sanctuary right now. It’s because the elephants are fed coffee beans that have been carefully picked, washed and dried. The elephants also get fruit, rice, and water with their beans. Then...well, the beans come back out. The digestive system of the elephant breaks down proteins in the beans that creates, so they say, a deliciously slow-cooked taste. The coffee costs about $50 per serving. Only 220 pounds of this rare coffee has ever been made, so far. Page 1 / 1 Take A Moment To Share Advertisement Roasted Birds Afp/AFP/Getty Images Ortolan is one of the most famously expensive and fancy French delicacies, though it has been declared illegal. The ortolan resembles a sparrow. Before cooking, the birds are fattened up and drowned in alcohol (usually brandy). After all this, the bird is roasted and eaten whole. Bones and all, yes.

Pig-Hunted Mushrooms Olivier Morin/AFP/Getty Images Would you ever take a pig out in the woods, let it root around for awhile, and then eat what the animal finds? It sounds a little crazy, but this is exactly how you find truffles , one of the most expensive delicacies that money can buy. Black truffles and white truffles are both used in the fanciest dishes in the world, and they cost from $250 to $450 per pound. Both pigs and specially-trained truffle dogs are used to hunt down truffles, which grow in the wild. To taste something a little more affordable, try the relatively new Oregon truffle. It costs just $150 per pound. Inner Glands Brian Brainerd/Denver Post/Getty Images Sweetbreads are a somewhat deceptive delicacy, because the word sounds amazing. But sweetbreads are actually glands — mostly the thymus and pancreas gland of very young calves. Less expensive sweetbreads from pork or lamb are also available. This delicacy appears in fancy cuisine a lot. Sweetbreads are commonly fried or sauteed, but they can be cooked in a variety of ways.

Sweetbreads are not inexpensive if you can get the raw ingredients, but you'll pay a pretty penny for them in a restaurant. Sweetbreads generally cost $7 to $20 per pound at the store. Civet Coffee Sonny Tumbelaka/AFP/Getty Images Civet coffee, more properly known as kopi luwak , is made from coffee berries that have been digested by the Asian palm civet. And honestly, this is not a cute-looking creature. The palm civet is also known as a toddy cat, but it is neither toddy nor cat. It’s in the Viverridae family and very closely resembles a rodent. The reason this coffee is so expensive? Because of the civets. The animal chooses berries that contain the best beans, so you’re already getting a product that’s been carefully-selected (clearly). The digestive process then adds to the flavor of the coffee beans, because fermentation occurs within the animal’s body. It can be a costly coffee depending on where you live in the world. Kopi luwak ranges anywhere from $10 to $100 per pound.

Smelly Fruit Glenn Asakawa/Denver Post/Getty Images The durian fruit is one of the worst-smelling things you can possibly encounter in life. You can smell the fruit from half a block away, sometimes. The taste, however, is reported to be delightful. The fruit has a custardy texture and a very strong savory flavor. An average durian fruit will cost you about $15 if you’re in Malaysia or another place where it’s readily available. It’s harder to find in the United States, however. Here, it will cost you about $30 to get a freeze-dried or frozen durian fruit — before shipping. Blood Soup Hoang Dinh Nam/AFP/Getty Images In Vietnam, it’s known as tiet canh. But that translates to “blood soup,” and that’s what it is. Fresh, raw duck blood is mixed with fish sauce. Peanuts and meat from various organs are added and served in a bowl with the blood to create this delicacy. You'll have trouble finding this dish in the United States because of the risks of bird flu. The Vietnamese government is attempting to make tiet canh illegal for just that reason.

You'll have to take a vacation to taste this soup, which is expensive even in is native country. Rotten Shark Wikimedia Commons/Xfigpower Not all foodies can always stomach hakarl , an Icelandic delicacy. To create it, one must first butcher a shark. The body is then buried in a sandy hole for a few months. The shark is taken back out and hung to dry, then placed in a curing chamber in order to ferment for several more months. The taste, they say, is very much like ammonia. You cannot get hakarl in the United States at all, so you’ll have to enjoy this one while traveling. In Icelandic restaurants, it's a very costly entree. Fried Brain Sandwich Wikimedia Commons/Tim Schapker This delicacy has no special name, it’s simply called fried brain sandwich and it’s pretty much only found in the Midwestern U.S. The brain in question is calf, and it’s deep-fried and served like a hamburger. The texture is said to be creamy. The brains aren't that expensive, unless you figure in travel costs. You’ll pay $10 to $20 per pound for good beef brains at the store, when you can find them.

Really Old Fish Eggs Cat Shit Coffee @ £50 a cup! - Monkey Review Monkey Review Cat Shit Coffee @ £50 a cup! by admin · April 10, 2008 Cat Shit Coffee at £50 a cup Cup of Caffe Raro The blend is made from two rare coffee beans A gourmet coffee blended from animal droppings is being sold at a London department store for £50 per cup. Jamaican Blue Mountain and the Kopi Luwak bean are used to create Caffe Raro which is thought to be the most expensive cup of coffee in the world. Kopi Luwak beans are eaten, then passed, by the cat-like Asian palm civet, and sell for £324 a kilogram. All profits from sales of the coffee at Peter Jones in Sloane Square in April will go to Macmillan Cancer Support. Ripest berries Asian palm civets, which live in the foliage of plantations across south-east Asia, are said to pick the best and ripest coffee berries. Enzymes in their digestive system break down the flesh of the fruit before the animals expel the bean.

The beans are then collected from the plantation floor by workers who wash away the dung and roast them. David Cooper, who created the blend, said: “These rare coffees have been slowly hand roasted for around 12 minutes to ensure that we maximise the potential of each coffee. “The final roast colour is quite dark to ensure that the espresso is perfect for a smooth latte or cappuccino.” See the real “cat” and find out more info after the jump! Cat Shit Coffee grows in dozens of countries around the world. Some varieties have earned a special reputation, often based on a combination of rarity, unusual circumstances and particularly good flavor. These coffees, from Jamaican Blue Mountain to Kona to Tanzanian Peaberry, command a premium price. But perhaps no coffee in the world is in such short supply, has such unique flavors and an interesting background as Kopi Luwak. And no coffee even comes close in price, Kopi Luwak sells for approximately US$75 per quarter pound making it the most expensive coffee in the world! “Kopi” the Indonesian word for coffee along with “Luwak” is local name for Asian Palm Civet, an animal similar to a weasel.

Luwak comes from the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi, in the Indonesian Archipelago. But it’s not strictly the exotic location that makes these beans worth their weight in silver. It’s how they’re “processed.” Kopi Luwak or Civet coffee is coffee made from raw red coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). The animals gorge on the ripe berries, and excrete the partially-digested beans, which are then harvested for sale. The stomach acids and enzymatic action involved in this unique fermentation process produces the beans for the world’s rarest coffee beverage. Unable to digest the coffee beans, the Luwak graciously deposits them on the jungle floor where they are eagerly collected by the locals. Initially, it was a way for the natives to get coffee without the hassle of climbing trees, and has since evolved into the world’s priciest specialty coffee. Japan buys the bulk of Kopi Luwak, but Mark Mountanos, the first in the United States to bring in this exotic bean, recently imported 110 pounds after a seven year search for a reliable and stable supplier.

“It’s the rarest beverage in the world,” Mark Mountanos says, estimating a total annual crop of less than 500 pounds. This rare and exotic coffee can cost about US$5 per cup in the United States, and fetch as high as AU$50 (US$45) in Australia. 1000+ images about Civits, Genets, Linsangs, Fossa, and Mongoos [Viverridae] on Pinterest | Javanese, Kruger national park and Old world Pinterest • The world’s catalog of ideas Civits, Genets, Linsangs, Fossa, and Mongoos [Viverridae] The Viverridae are a family of small to medium-sized mammals, the viverrids, comprising 15 genera, which are subdivided into 38 species. Viverrids are the most primitive of all the families of aeluroid Carnivora and clearly less specialized than the Felidae. They are generally solitary and have excellent hearing and vision. Despite their placement in the order Carnivora, they are omnivorous, or, in the case of the palm civet, almost entirely herbivorous.

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Question: Kopi Luwak coffee beans, the most expensive in the world, come from the dung of which animal, after it has partially digested the berries which contain the beans?
Answer: Civet